DELMAR — The Bethlehem Town Board is scheduled to decide what disciplinary action to take against its highway superintendent following an apparent ethics violation.
In October, the Town Ethics Board reviewed an ethics complaint filed against Highway Superintendent Marc Dorsey regarding excess dirt he had delivered to his home residence from Hodorowski Homes, LLC without payment.
In an October 12 letter, members of the Ethics Board stated Dorsey violated the Town’s ethics code. It also recommended that the Town Board direct the highway czar to cease and desist from receiving any more from the contractor or from other entities doing business “in or with the Town.”
The Town Board can now adopt that recommendation or choose to do something else. That decision is expected when it meets next on Wednesday, Dec. 8.
Dorsey explained to the Ethics Board that he has received clean fill on his land, and has held a permit to do so for the last five years. He said that the fill is “valueless,” otherwise it would be sold on the open market.
Dorsey called the claim a “political hit job.” The Ethics Board first deliberated over the claim on Oct. 7, within a month of Election Day. The first-term highway superintendent was running for reelection this year. He won the election last month over challenger, and former highway superintendent, John “Tiger” Anastasi.
“If this was a real problem, it would have been brought up when I was first elected in 2019,” Dorsey shared in a statement to The Spotlight in October. “Instead, this is being used as a political hit job two weeks before an election.”
